


Underneath

by Lyra_Dhani



Series: Young Boss [2]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: BAMF Sawada Tsunayoshi, Case Fic, Character Study, Gen, Italian Mafia, Mafia Boss Sawada Tsunayoshi, POV Outsider, The mafia business changes him, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:48:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22958941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyra_Dhani/pseuds/Lyra_Dhani
Summary: She stalked across the library, feeling dozen pairs of eye following her with curiousity. If she had to be honest, to have this much attention on her was driving her crazy. As an assasin, she used to blend in with the shadows, unnoticed and invisible and deadly.Sawada Tsunayoshi looked up from the book he’d been reading. “Ah, it’s you.”(Or, the life of Sawada Tsunayoshi from a freelance assasin's point of view.)
Series: Young Boss [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1702123
Comments: 6
Kudos: 214





	Underneath

She stalked across the library, feeling dozen pairs of eye following her with curiousity. If she had to be honest, to have this much attention on her was driving her crazy. As an assasin, she used to blend in with the shadows, unnoticed and invisible and _deadly_.

Sawada Tsunayoshi looked up from the book he’d been reading. “Ah, it’s you.”

And something in his tone made her paused. The traces of weakness she’d heard in his voice was now completely gone, replaced by something more somber, sharper, and certainly more dangerous.

“Are you the Vongola Boss?” she asked, surprised at herself for being able to keep her calm.

Sawada Tsunayosh leaned in, his elbow in the table, his cheek resting on his hand, eyes trained on her the whole time. She found herself frozen under his piercing stare, unable to move, her back sweating. Then, he broke into a smile and all of a sudden, he was back being the kid that everybody here was looking down upon. The change was so drastic, it gave her a splash of migraine. She winced as his smile widening. “I am. Do you need something?”

“I am Rose.”

The young boss simply blinked at her in nonchalant. “I know. The transfer student, right?”

So, he knew the whole time that she was an assasin assigned by Vongola to be his bodyguard. Rose had been observing him and not once he gave an indication that he was aware of her presence. Either he didn’t care or he simply didn’t notice. She’d thought it had been the latter. Sawada Tsunayoshi was one of the most influental figure in the Underworld but he certainly didn’t act like one.

Sawada Tsunayoshi went back to his book, flipping some pages, his face expressing clear disinterest.

It was hard to imagine this was the same boy that stammer in front of his classmates.

.

.

Rose sat down across her Boss, who turned his head at her with questions in his eyes. She was aware that everybody was staring at them, probably wondering why Dame-Tsuna and the popular new girl were sitting together in the same table.

“Rose-san,” Boss said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I thought you’d sit with the popular kids.”

“Just call me Rose,” and because she knew that Boss wouldn’t do anything to her at the school ground, she continued, “Well, you’re certainly a popular one, aren’t you, Sawada Tsunayoshi?”

Not here, of course, but in the Underworld, Sawada Tsunayoshi was pratically a celebrity.

Sawada Tsunayoshi narrowed his eyes at her, his expression turned cold, leaving her breathless with fear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Then as instantly as it came, the coldness disappeared, and he smiled, his Dame-Tsuna persona carefully put together in its place. “If you want to, I can show you around the school.”

Rose let herself relax.

They chatted a little. Rose watched out for his expression the whole time. The Boss didn’t give her any deviously-hidden scathing remark, so perhaps this interaction was safe.

.

.

“Dame-Tsuna!” Rose winced at the distasteful nickname. “What’s your deal with the transfer student?” A guy casually swung his arm around Tsuna’s shoulder, smiling with barely hidden sneer.

She noticed that everyone was listening, obviously curious.

“Yeah, Tsuna,” another guy asked, indignant. “What’s your relationship with Rose?”

She flinched at the mention of her name. This was totally not what she wanted to be an audience off when she decided to follow Boss to the boy’s changing room. It was bad enough that she could feel the lust in their eyes, now she had to hear it too. Crouching at the air vent, she held back her urge to slice off their tongues. That would definitely shut them up. It was a tempting thought but she figured the Boss didn’t appreciate her making a murder scene in his school.

“Ah, um, we are, uh...” the Boss stuttered, flustered. An act, one that Rose still couldn’t exactly figure out yet. “We are just acquintance,” he finished lamely.

“Then do you mind to introduce her to me?”

“Yeah, to me, too!”

The room soon swallowed in chaos.

There was a small twitch in Boss’ mouth, a reaction that would have gone unnoticed if Rose wasn’t observing him throughly. It was either panic or impatience, kind of hard to tell.

“Well,” Tsuna said, smiling. “Why don’t you go ask her out yourself?”

His smile said panic but his eyes were dark and humorless. So, it was impatience, after all. It wouldn’t do for a Mafia Boss to panic.

.

.

A week after she started her job as Vongola’s bodyguard, Tsuna (who kept insisting on to be called by his nickname) was finally curious enough to ask the details on her job.

“So, when will you be back to Italy?”

He never showed interest in her job before so the question was so unexpected that Rose choked on her coffee then proceed to cough in pain, Tsuna was watching her the whole time in amusement. When she was finished, her throat felt sore and Tsuna pushed a drink toward her with a deceptively-innocent smile. “Are you okay, Rose?”

The sucker was definitely doing this on purpose. Rose rolled her eyes, accepting the drink. “In a month, probably.”

“A month,” Tsuna mused over the information, his face was impossible to read. “That’s a long time.”

Rose was ready to say something sarcastic but then she remembered the reason she was here in the first place. She huffed. “It is. I miss Italy.”

Tsuna stared at her, his eyes searching.

“I miss my friends.”

It was the first time he was open about his feeling.

Rose thought about it. She’d heard the rumours that the newest Vongola Boss was an ordinary Japanese kid raised by a normal family. Judging from what she saw, the rumours appeared to be true.

She wondered what it felt like, to have your normality snatched away from you. She’d walked down this path since she was five, a knife in her hand and a gun in another. She had no other choice to survive. Rose and Tsuna couldn’t be anymore different.

.

.

Tsuna managed to look intimidating in his regular school uniform. In his black his suit, he looked full-blown menacing. It was a great display of power, probably not of raw strenght, but still one that made Rose wanted to throw herself at his feet and begged him to let her kiss his ring. There was no way Tsuna missed that impulsive desire.

Waiting in the airport only assisted by the hired bodyguard, Tsuna looked almost melancholic.

When their guest arrived, his status as the Vongola boss was almost like an illusion. He flustered and stuttered and tripped over his own feet and looking at him Rose had a headache as big as the moon.

The boss of Monti Fagmilia seemed amused by this while his subordinates either looked disgusted or plainly sneering.

Tsuna was nothing but pleasant the whole time, but once or twice, Rose catched the anymosity, the faintest moment like Tsuna was about to break down and order her to murder everyone there.

It was only when Monti was about to leave that Tsuna turned around and dropped his smile, looking dead to the world.

“Let’s go,” he ordered her, his voice strangely neutral.

“What’s your plan?”

Tsuna was quiet. When they finally went back to the car, Tsuna who sat on the driver’s seat turned at her, what she saw in his grin was not malice but something far darker and more complex, “They won’t know what will hit them.”

.

.

Rose wasn’t interested in the Cultural Festival but she did get interested in the School Drama her class was pouring their effort into. Her curiousity didn’t lie in the musical drama itself but in the story.

“Tsuna would suit this role,” Rose said.

“The role of the knight?” One of her temporary classmates raised an eyebrow.

“No,” she shook her head. “The dragon.”

The classmate burst our laughing. “The evil dragon? Tsuna?”

“Well, one of this dialogue here-“ she cut herself when she catched Tsuna staring at her from the corner. She gulped. “Nevermind.”

Tsuna continued talking with his friends like he’d never noticed her, smiling and laughing and getting flustered when they teased him. When Rose looked down, she realized that her hands were sweating. She wondered how long Tsuna had been watching.

.

.

At the face of death, Tsuna managed to look calm. Rose didn’t know whether it was another mask he put on or whether he was simply couldn’t be bothered. Tsuna could look intimidating and adorably harmless in a span of few seconds, she had better chance flying to the moon than reading what was going through his mind.

“For the last time, Sawada Tsunayoshi-kun,” Monti said, clearly losing impatience despite the warm hospitality in his tone. “Sign the contract.”

“I won’t hand over Vongola to you,” Tsuna said. He didn’t stutter and he didn’t look like he’d piss off his pants. Rose wished he knew what he was doing. With her hands tied back and her weapons confiscated, she was as useless as a wooden stick.

“I see,” Monti sighed. “Then I have no choice.”

He pulled out a chainsaw. Rose gulped. Tsuna’s expression didn’t change a bit. “You promised you won’t hurt him.”

“I promise I won’t hurt him anymore than necessary.”

“You’re a liar, Marcus Monti,” she spat out.

“And a fool,” Tsuna said. He was grinning.

Tsuna stood up slowly, elegantly, eyes on Monti the whole time. Monti’s men tensed but they didn’t do anything.

“Sit down, Sawada Tsunayoshi, I didn’t say you’re allowed to move,” Monti said. He sounded as disturbed as Rose felt.

“Your plan is great. But it’ll never work,” Tsuna cracked his knuckles. He took a step forward, Monti took a step back, Rose wanted to do the same. His deranged smile made him look crazy and she felt like the world had gone crazy with him. “Because I am the Neo Vongola Primo.”

.

.

Her teacher once said that she was not very good at discerning the facts. It was her fatal flaw and Rose had dismissed it as unimportant. The facts didn’t matter, after all. It got her into trouble once or twice but she always managed to get her job done. It was how she rose through the ranks. The single-minded determination, a trait that not every assasins had. The last time Rose visited her teacher, he had patted her head and said, “Everybody has a flaw, Rose. Don’t be ashamed of yours.”

She always had the suspicion that he could see the future.

And Tsuna, battered and bruised and leaving the enemy in worse state, casually wiped the blood in his mouth and looked in the distance liked he could see the future too.

“Where are you going?” She asked.

“I am hungry,” Tsuna said and left the abandoned building. He said his men would take care the rest.

Rose hesitantly followed him. Technically, she was still his bodyguard. They ended up going to a small bar in the area, apparently one that Tsuna was a regular of because there was no other way you could go to somewhere public with dried blood in your shirt without raising some questions. As it was, the bartender only gave them a nod when Tsuna ordered some food.

“Was it all a trap?”

Tsuna paused, “You didn’t know?”

She shook her head.

“That explains a lot of things,” Tsuna smiled, amused. “I was wondering whether your insistence on following me around was just you being dedicated on your role.”

“And the Guardians?”

The young boss snorted. “I sent them away. Monti thought they had gotten rid of them. It was actually the other way around.”

Rose comtemplated it. “What role am I playing?”

“The bodyguard,” Tsuna answered simply. “To make me look weak.”

It was something that Tsuna could achieve just with his brilliant acting alone.

Unless it wasn’t acting, at all. Monti had said something about Tsuna being too soft for the underworld. She frowned. “I thought you’re just a normal kid.”

Normal was not the right word. A young Boss capable of dirtying his hand wouldn’t be defined by the word ‘normal’. It was the reason why Rose was so careful with Tsuna in the first place. She’d always envisioned Tsuna as the ordinary kid who had too much power at the palm of his hands. The kid who thought of it as a toy and the Mafia as a game.

If Tsuna wished for her death, then her head would be delivered to his room within hours.

“I was a normal kid,” Tsuna raised his drink, staring at the glass with a melancholic in his face. “Two years ago.”

“One last question,” she hesitated. “Which one is the real you?”

Tsuna barked a laugh, the sincerest thing Rose ever heard of him. He turned his chair to fully face her, an excited gleam in his eyes as he answered simply, “It’s neither.”

He laughed at her face, childish and warm and not at all like the broken doll she’d seen at the airport. She stared at him, at the display of pure emotions, one that made her wanted to follow this young Boss till the end of her life. “Maybe we should start over.”

And when he smiled at her this time, Rose didn’t feel scared or disgusted. She smiled back. “Yes,” she coughed, feeling a little awkward. This was new, this was different.

“Hello, Rose,” Tsuna reached out his hand, the one with the Vongola ring on it. “My name is Sawada Tsunayoshi. I will change the Vongola.”

His smile, without all the sharp edges and the taunting shadow, was kind.

**Author's Note:**

> Remember my dear readers, eat well and live well and don't be like me who are supposed to focus on my final project, instead of writing down this fic. Goodness, me, what am going to do with my life. No kidding though, I need to stop.


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